 Hi, my name is David Rosales. I'm the pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. In 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5, Paul challenged the church to examine themselves to see if they were in the faith. He told them to test themselves to see if Jesus really was in them. I've walked with the Lord for close to 50 years and today it seems obvious to me that this question is an important one to be answered by many who claim to be Christians. This Sunday I'll celebrate my 70th birthday. I got saved at the age of 20 in December of 1970 in the midst of a modern-day revival called the Jesus Movement. When I got saved, I turned away from my old life. I began to learn how to live a new one. I began to learn how to live as a Christian. On the day I was saved, I was told to read the Bible, to pray, to fellowship with other believers, to share my faith with those who don't know Jesus. I was told that I should do this because Jesus was coming back and there was not much time left until he returned. I was taught that the gospel, when believed, would result in a changed life and that the world didn't need more religious people but needed Jesus people. This was important because 50 years ago the United States was still very religious. As a nation, we were religious but empty. When the Jesus Movement hit, many of the youth were open to the gospel because we saw how messed up we were. We knew doing drugs and getting drunk was empty, which was something I knew from personal experience, having lived such a life for many years. We knew that love mattered, but we confused love with lust. We rebranded fornication and adultery, calling it making love. We promoted the pill. We legalized abortion, which predictably followed our now acceptable philosophy. We stopped seeing celebrities as talented people. We began looking to them for answers to eternal questions. Popular rock stars slowly became our moral instructors and actors and actresses began to think that they were qualified to teach us how to live. Scientists priests began openly and earnestly undermining students' religious faith. College professors openly challenged the faith of their students, not with the purpose of teaching them to think critically, but with the intent of overthrowing their faith in Jesus. This is something I endured as a young college student. I speak of it firsthand. I attended six different colleges and universities. I can testify firsthand that some of my professors were not just devoid of faith, they were antagonistic towards it. What kept me solid in my faith in Jesus? I remained faithful to Him because I placed Him first in my life. Now, I didn't live a sinless life and, yes, I made bad choices. I learned some hard lessons, but through it all, I held fast to Him. These are the things that undergirded my passion for Jesus, my desire for others to serve Him faithfully. As I surveyed the church landscape, I can't help but have a growing concern for the health of the church. I see the fruit of churches that are large, but not actually teaching the Bible. They're actually teaching what they think is right for this moment. People are leaving Bible teaching churches in order to be entertained. Spurgeon once said, a time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats. And to be honest, that's happening more than you may think. My pastor Chuck Smith told us that when you are in church, it doesn't matter how high you jump, but how straight you walk. That's what really matters. For you church hoppers, perhaps you need to think about what is wrong in your own life before you blame the pastors and teachers for your carnality. Church services are not entertainment venues. They're not political rallies. They're times when the church family gathers to worship to be equipped for works of service. If you don't know what right from wrong is from reading your Bible, then perhaps you're not reading it and have instead chosen to have someone tell you their opinions instead of scripture. I'm greatly concerned for the church. It seems that carnality is becoming the new normal and that pastors have yielded to the desire for popularity and avoid offending carnal hearers. As I mentioned earlier, I'll celebrate my 70th birthday this Sunday and can tell you that I'm slowly but steadily growing more tired and one day will retire from pastoring this church. That's simply a physical fact, but one thing I am not tired of is loving the Lord and loving his church. And because I love him and I love the church, I encourage you today, keep your eyes on Jesus. In the end, whether I was a Democrat, independent, Republican, well that's not going to be the basis of my entrance into heaven. It's whether I was born again through faith in Jesus, which created a brand new life that was identifiably lined up with his word. Anybody who knows me knows what party I belong to, but I'm not called to evangelize people into that party. I'm called to share with people about something greater, the kingdom of heaven. My concern is that people know what God's word says and when they do, they'll know which political party most closely conforms to that. They will also know how they should live in times like these. For those of you who call me pastor and are part of our church family, I look forward to seeing you this upcoming Sunday and celebrating my 70th birthday as we together study God's word. I love you and will continue doing my best to teach you God's word line upon line. This is David Rosales, pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.